Apexology: Horror

by Anthology

  “What did she say to set him off,” Caffy interjected. “She had to say something incendiary to set Rees off like that.”

  “I don’t know.” Miles winced; this line of questioning was getting more and more uncomfortable by the moment. “She was whispering something in his ear, the audio was garbled and Dr. Hewlett is, uh, tightlipped about the exchange.”

  “Where is Dr. Hewlett now?” Melanie inquired pointedly. Even though Rees wasn’t exclusively her patient, she felt a tinge of possessive professional jealousy.

  “She should be here soon,” Miles responded, glancing at his Rolex.

  The flash of the watch wasn’t lost on Melanie. Where did Miles get the money to buy a Rolex? There was no way he could afford something so expensive on his salary. It was obviously a fake. Caffy quickly cleared her thoughts. She was normally quite resolute at controlling and organizing her thoughts, but her mind was a jumble of emotions and questions, a myriad of noise.

  She blinked as the walls grew transparent for an instant. A town loomed where the walls should’ve been. She immediately recognized it as Dunwich, but not as it was now, as it would have been in the past. It looked just like the depictions Rees drew during their sessions. Desolate, cold and foreboding. Just as she was certain something monstrous would burst from one of the buildings, she closed her eyes.

  They flinched as the door swung open without warning. The office was back to normal.

  “Good morning, Warden,” Dr. Hewlett greeted as she swept into the small office. “And you must be, Dr. Caffy,” she stated, cold, lidded eyes keenly gauging Melanie.

  Melanie felt as if she were a rabbit just spotted by a viper.

  7

  The memory place.

  James leisurely walked the street past countless doors on either side. His shoes echoed off the cobblestones. Some doors were locked. Permanently. Others were unlocked. All contained memories, both real and fabricated. This fictional representation of Dunwich was his fortress of deprivation, joy, and anguish, created to house all of Rees’ thoughts. Dr. Caffy had briefly breached this place. It was she who christened Rees’ creation, the memory place.

  James halted outside a building on his left and slowly turned to face the gleaming, stolid expansive door that guarded the room beyond. The door appeared to be breathing, slowly constricting, then expanding. Its shade was flesh toned, because that was what it was constructed of…human flesh.

  James looked down the street to his right. From where he stood, it continued for miles into the distance until he couldn’t make out the end. Squat, square buildings sat on both sides of the street, until it looked like they reached deep into the sky, an optical illusion that could never be recreated in the real world. Whippoorwills perched in the eaves of many of the structures, silently watching him pass. In the distance, dogs barked madly at unseen threats. James took a moment to gaze about his creation and marvel at how well he’d managed to capture the essence of Dunwich in this place. He peered up at the hills that crouched behind the buildings. Those hills loomed up darkly to swallow the wound colored sky. Dotted here and there, rings of rough hewn stone pillars stood out among the trees, a part of the landscape and not. He’d explored these stone circles, with their table-like stone centerpieces, and it was from these he’d learned of the Old Ones’ cosmic plans. It was there he’d smelt their presence and heard their ancient whisperings.

  He reached out and grasped the knob of bone, the door handle to this particular hideaway of memory. He wrenched it open and a course of pleasure coursed through his being as the door screamed in agony. This door had been locked for ages, but now, James knew he must peruse its contents.

  Yog-Sothoth was here…

  8

  She hadn’t taken a breath since Dr. Hewlett entered the room. Melanie involuntarily expelled the pent up breath in a loud gush. She felt as if she had been struck in the stomach. Psychosomatic nausea engulfed her.

  “Is there a problem?” Dr. Hewlett asked, her voice saturated with false concern. “Are you all right, Dr. Caffy, you look like you’ve just consumed something displeasing.”

  “I’m sorry,” Melanie managed as she blindly rushed for the door, nearly knocking Hewlett to the floor.

  Miles wore the look of a deer caught in onrushing headlights at the exchange. He managed to find one of the chairs surrounding the pitted table and collapsed into it.

  “What’s that all about?” he muttered.

  9

  James stepped into a vaulted room clothed in shades of pus-tinged light. The room was cavernous, much larger than the building housing it. Time and space weren’t relative here. The ceiling receded into nothingness, the walls barely perceived in the undulating ambiance. The centerpiece of the room was awash in ruddy brown light that seemed to issue from everywhere and nowhere at once. That piece was a birthing table, an altar of glistening steel. Around the table, massive stone columns twelve feet high were situated in a rough circle. Ancient writing circled up the stones like coiling snakes. Words bleed into other words as the stones pulsed.

  Lying restrained upon the table was a memory aura of Yog-Sothoth Rees had encapsulated. It lolled its bulbous head in his direction and grinned through a razor-sharp maw that writhed with tentacles. James shuddered slightly even though he knew the thing could not harm him because it was only a figment of his creation. There were parts of its anatomy that appeared undefined, and this was true, as he’d only glimpsed a fraction of the creature’s true form. James had flung his gaze away because he had sensed that to see Yog-Sothoth’s full manifestation would rain madness down upon him.

  He had met the real thing nine years before in Dunwich and it was more horrifying than what he could ever hope to capture. Still, what he had managed to capture in his memory place was more than enough to chill his blood.

  “So, you return,” it rasped, its voice a cross between a baby’s gurgle, a demon’s laugh. “My children have missed your company,” the creature murmured and lifted a wizened stump of an arm, gesticulating at the glass jars.

  “You’re here aren’t you?” James stated, ignoring the vast jars of ill-formed barely recognizable fetuses. There was something wrong with them in the most fundamental way, as if they’d been formed in some cosmic geometric design, not of this world. They bore some resemblance to spiders, centipedes and octopuses in their construction, but past that, there was not anything recognizable as originating from this solar system.

  “Of course, I am,” Yog-Sothoth taunted.

  “You know what I meant,” James spat, some of his courage returning. “You’re in Dr. Hewlett. I almost had you, if it hadn’t been for those psych techs. I almost had you,” Rees repeated softly.

  “Shhh,” the thing admonished. “That will be our little secret.”

  James glanced down at his clenched fist. Suddenly, a scalpel jutted from his hand as if by magic. He took a steadying breath, then vaulted the twenty feet across the room and plunged the scalpel savagely into the thing’s black, lubricious chest.

  The giant’s screams filled Rees’ head. He didn’t need the memory construct any longer. He knew where to find the real thing.

  “I’ll see you soon,” James whispered, already returning to his body.

  The psych techs exchanged glances. This one was a real fruitcake their looks conveyed.

  10

  Melanie stared at the running water swirling in the bathroom sink without really seeing it.

  She was still reeling in shock. It was her. She’d never known the name of the woman who’d wrenched Andrew from her life. She’d only seen a picture, inadvertently found in Andrew’s jacket pocket.

  He’d never offered a name. Hadn‘t even possessed enough respect to give her that much. Just came home one day after a business trip to Vegas, and said he was leaving.

  It all made sense now. The repeated trips to so-called architectural meetings for a non-existent casino project. Andrew had been seeing that, that woman, who was now standing not fifty feet a
way at this very moment. She took a breath, scooped a handful of the cool water and savagely splashed it across her burning face. She started as the bathroom morphed. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, but when she reopened them, the town still surrounded her. The sink, counter, and a fraction of the bathroom’s tile floor, the section she was standing on was still here, but past that, the street continued into the distance. Melanie would never admit to Rees that his descriptions of Dunwich had haunted her ever since he’d told her about the town. In fact, he’d so unsettled her, she’d gone to seek out this place and see if it were as ancient as Rees claimed it to be.

  The town had been unusually difficult to find she had soon discovered and just as she was about to abandon the search, she’d taken a rather dubious looking fork in the road, rather by accident, than intent, due to the dense fog which had abruptly sprung from nowhere, and as the road rose beneath the car’s tires, Dunwich flirted into view, materializing from the heavy fog. She was vaguely aware of structures situated on either side of the suddenly narrow road as she drove. The buildings appeared abandoned and desolate, hopelessly in disrepair, but what struck her the deepest, wasn’t their disrepair, but the obviously ancient stone foundations upon which many of the buildings rested.

  There was a definite feeling to the town, a sense of trespass. Melanie intuited if someone tried to plant something here, it wouldn’t grow. This sudden idea was weird and disheartening on many levels. She began looking for a place to turn the car around, but the fields on either side looked dubious and mucky. She didn’t want to chance getting stuck, definitely not here. She continued on and eventually came to what appeared to be the town’s center. She abruptly slammed the breaks, as a figure seemed to detach itself from the side of a building and rush across the road in front of her. The figure possessed the characteristics of a bipedal, humanoid form, but there was something fundamentally strange about the way it loped across the road. Even though she’d long before locked her doors, she checked again to make sure all the same.

  Melanie let out a startled scream as the radio blared to life. She quickly fumbled with the knob, until the volume was at a bearable level. She didn’t recognize the sounds at first, but they definitely weren’t normal radio chatter or generic pop tunes. “They’re birds,” she’d whispered. Through the shrill bird song, a voice seemed to waver in and out. Melanie found herself leaning forward, straining to make out what the voice was saying. Enough to…make a…devil…Yog-Sothoth…is…near…the gate is…make…devil.

  After a few minutes, when the voice had grown silent, the radio finally did as well. Melanie found a place that looked safe to turn around and left without a glance back. She’d never spoken of the strange experience with anyone.

  She was a rational person; this was merely stress from being back within the confines of Mowman and then coming face to face with Hewlett. That was all. Steeling her resolve, she turned and walked out the door.

  What she didn’t know was that the town still remained behind the door. Reality was folding, becoming thin. The town was growing by the moment, slowly taking over the facility like a cancer.

  11

  As Melanie walked back into the office, both Miles and Hewlett glanced up. Miles attempted to offer a consoling smile, but it came off more of a grimace. Dr. Hewlett merely stared. Her face offered no clue as to what she might be thinking.

  “I’m sorry for that outburst,” Caffy said before any of them could say anything. “I haven’t been feeling well lately and it all just seemed to come on me at once.”

  “Mr. Rees is on his way,” Hewlett informed Melanie. “As for you outburst, I’m glad it happened now and not when Mr. Rees was present.”

  Melanie’s face burned at Hewlett’s snide insinuation and she saw a smug look briefly flutter across the woman’s features. She was burning with anger, not embarrassment, but she held her peace and smiled back at Dr. Hewlett.

  “Yes, that would’ve been quite unfortunate,” Caffy said in an even tone. “Allow me to make a proper introduction. My name is Dr. Melanie Caffy and you must be the Dr. Hewlett, Miles was telling me all about.”

  Hewlett glanced at Melanie’s proffered hand, hesitated a brief second, fixed Miles with a seething look, then took it. The brief touch was revolting and Melanie had the distinct feeling the woman was prying into her head. She quickly broke the contact. She felt violated and filthy.

  Hewlett had yet to give any indication she knew who Melanie was. Could she be that cold, Melanie’s mind intoned? Or did she really not make the connection?

  Before she could continue the line of thought, Miles uncomfortably cleared his throat. “I, uh, think that you and I should take our leave to the observation room, Dr. Hewlett, and leave Dr. Caffy to her parole eligibility evaluation.”

  “Very well, Warden Miles,” Hewlett sniffed and then trailed Miles out of the room.

  As soon as they left, Melanie’s shoulders sagged and she heaved a sigh. There would be time to deal with Hewlett later. She had a job to do. She resolutely walked over to the pockmarked table and took a seat.

  12

  James was fully back in the present now. He made no indication he had heard the catcalls cascading down on him as the techs led him through the halls. Their journey to the interview office was almost to an end, and five check points later, they came to a stop outside the door.

  “Here we are at your suite,” one of the techs joked, but no one laughed, so he opened the door and nudged Rees into the room.

  “Mr. Rees,” Melanie greeted as she rose from her seat.

  “James, please. Dr. Caffy, we spoke about this before,” James replied warmly. “Call me James. How have you been, Doc?”

  “Good, James, I guess you know why I’m here?”

  “Sure, you wanna know if I’m still crazy,” Rees laughed.

  “Well, are you?” Melanie asked.

  “Of course not,” James grinned. “Never was. Is this really necessary?” he asked, holding up his manacled wrists.

  “I don’t know, you tell me?” Melanie returned. “I heard a little about your incident with Dr. Hewlett.”

  Rees visibly stiffened at the mention of Hewlett’s name, but quickly recovered. “That was, uh, unfortunate, but she invaded my personal space and I gently corrected her.”

  “You attacked her,” Caffy stated pointedly. “What did she say? You forget, I know you, James, you must’ve had a good reason to attack her,” Melanie turned to gaze obstinately into the one-way mirror as she articulated her last statement.

  “All in good time, Melanie, this doesn’t all have to be so formal just quite yet. How’s the family? Any new additions? I see you’re just as stunning as ever.”

  “You guys can leave now,” Melanie addressed the techs, ignoring James’ banter, standing like trained gorillas by the door. “Go have a cigarette or something.”

  Both grunted and quickly left the room. Rees smiled and produced a crumpled pack of Marlboros. He offered one to Melanie. When she refused, he shrugged and shook one from the pack.

  “So, how have you been doing?” Melanie asked as she placed the panic button on the table between them. “It’s been a couple of months since we last spoke.”

  “The usual,” James sighed, expelling a stream of blue smoke. “Not much transpires in this place.”

  “Anymore visions?”

  Rees inhaled once more on his cigarette and considered the question. “The meds only do so much, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Let’s talk about why you’re here,” Melanie prodded as she turned on the recording microphone and positioned it before Rees.

  “Ah, yes, the cleansings.”

  “You mean the murders you committed.”

  “Yes, another term for what I was doing, I suppose. A most dreadful repercussion.”

  Melanie nodded and jotted down something on the pad before her. Patient still presents illusions of blamelessness for crimes perpetrated. “I know that you’ve told everyone, includi
ng myself, why you committed the murders, but I would like to hear it again, in your own words, if you would accommodate me.”

  James smiled and tapped ash into the tray before him. “Now, Melanie, I don’t believe in any of that stuff anymore, I was misled, what can I say?”

  Melanie jotted something else down on the pad before her. Rees made as if to peek and then chuckled. “I’ve had a lot of time to think in this place, Doctor.”

  “Certainly.” Melanie responded, checked her notes, then ventured on, “You claimed you were attempting to rid the Earth of a certain entity you came to call Yog-Sothoth. You were a prominent abortion specialist for fourteen years, prior to that you specialized in obstetrics…”